Frammenti sospesi tra cielo e terra. La disciplina delle reliquie tra diritto canonico e diritti secolari

The aim of this study is to give an account of relics and in order to achieve it the paper examines three different perspectives. The first section charts the origin of the reliquary cult through an historical and systematic reconstruction, starting from the early Christianity until the 1917 Code of canon law. The second segment looks in more detail at the demanding objective to examine Church’s law in force on relics as well as relics worship. The normative to be analysed is contained in many different legislative sources, which have been object of little interest in terms of canonistic doctrine. The third and last section of this study points out the rising of the market of relics in our contemporary society. In particular, this point will be analysed through the eyes of the jurist who deals with religious matters, taking into account the complexity that links the canonical system to the national one, underlying the significant difficulties that the secular judiciary has to face when it comes to express themselves about subjects of “different order”.